Conservatives and Neoconservatives cutting and running from Bush will open opportunities for Iraq

An article in the Washington Post by Peter Baker entitled "Embittered insiders turn against Bush - War advocates, other conservatives say president mismanaged their vision" further illustrates how formerly ardent Conservatives and even Neoconservatives are abandoning President Bush in droves and leaving him hung out to dry, twisting slowly in the bitter winds of Washington. This "cut and run" is actually a rather surprising turn. The Neoconservatives have to realize that this was their big chance to advance their aggressive agenda. The combination of Bush, 9/11, the "failed state" of Iraq, and oodles of Conservative and even not-so-conservative support gave them an unparalleled mandate to be bold and break out of the box. But, as we are seeing, this was merely a house of cards that is now tumbling down. The good news is that this does give the Democrats an opening and it does give the Iraqis a huge opening to start pursuing their own path independent of the former Neoconservative agenda.

I fully expect the Democrats to botch this opportunity as badly as Bush botched his opportunity, but I really do think the Iraqis will in fact pick up the dropped ball and run with it quite well. Yes, there will be continued chaos and quagmire in Iraq for months to come, but I strongly suspect that the Iraqis are going to turn it into their own struggle towards their own goals rather than being hamstrung with the unworkable fantasies of the Neoconservative agenda.

When will things really turn the corner in Iraq? Probably about the same time that everybody in Washington gives up all hope of avoiding all-out failure in Iraq.

So many people are drawing parallels to Vietnam and how disastrous that was for our military, but today Vietnam is thriving and doing quite well despite being the key "domino" to fall in the so-called "Domino Theory." How did they manage to pull that off without the presence of large numbers of American troops? Maybe there are still lessons from Vietnam that have yet to be integrated into American foreign policy thinking.

Good luck Iraq!

-- Jack Krupansky